In Saecula Saeculorum
by IDespiseTragedy
Summary: There are times in which Haru can be a very—ahem—"demanding" partner in bed. This is one of those occasions.


Summary: There are times in which Haru can be a very—ahem—"demanding" partner in bed. This is one of those occasions.

Credits: Thank you so much to _Kleonlumi,_ _ravenreux,_ and _Elvira Rayne_ for beta reading

Disclaimer: None of _Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club_ or its elements is mine

Warnings: some gory horror moments (though not too scary), yaoi smex involving very mild bondage and blindfold, domestic fluff and happy ending guaranteed

Cultural Note: the title is often translated as "forever and ever," but I opt for its more literal meaning here: "in a lifetime of lifetimes."

* * *

 **In Saecula Saeculorum**

Disposing of an undead wasn't such a big deal. To begin with, the resurrected ones were easy to outrun. Then, when push came to shove, just stab a zombie at the right spot until you heard the "crunch" and "blob" sounds of your blade piercing through the walking corpse's brain and that'd be it—at least that had been what it took for Rin to survive until minutes ago.

Alas, that method didn't apply when the assailing zombie was the one who used to kiss him senseless.

The dreaded day of the apocalypse came into a quiet reality when a relatively harmless virus mutated into something treacherous and highly contagious. What had started as a simple healthcare itch turned out to be a swooping plague after infected person by infected person lost their sanity. It was only a matter of time before doctors dropped their syringes of sedatives and ran for their own lives; only a fool would try and subdue such insatiable hunger for living flesh.

Within days, the plague had been eating its way continuously across the globe, creeping from building to building along the corpse-littered streets, turning every teeming and gleaming metropolis into fetid ghost cities. Safe haven could no longer be found on Earth, not in public places and certainly not in the comfort of what people used to call "home." There was no shop left unlooted, no premise unspoiled, no place untouched. No survivor paid any heed to anything but their own safety. While the undead hunted for living flesh, the living ones used every opportunity to covet others' belongings, turning rape and robbery into daily bread.

Presently, as Rin gazed at the familiar figure before him, his heart ached. He had returned from Sydney in the middle of turmoil, cleaving his way through the forever-starving predators, and even car-napped a neglected taxi at Narita Airport, just to see his beloved. Disregarding his coach and friends' advice that his lover was a lost cause and that he himself should hide into safety, Rin had set forth to Japan. Yet the one confronting him here was no longer a living soul.

Mantled by the stench of putrefaction, Haru's then-smooth skin had now encrusted with lichen and decay. His used-to-be silky hair was matted with dry blood. A part of his entrails even dangled from the hole on his stomach.

All the previous hope Rin held upon his longing grasp almost instantaneously slipped through his fingers. Like a vivid reel of film, Rin saw Haru and him racing across the pool, Haru skimming over the restaurant's menu for grilled mackerel on the other side of the table, and Haru pondering which of the purple- streaked black jammers would suit him best until Rin crept from behind and tickled his ribs.

Rin choked at the frightening reality that none of those would ever happen again. With a broken murmur, he called, "Haru…"

Slowly, deliberately, Haru's mouth gaped.

For a fleeting second, Haru's empty stare met Rin's bewildered gaze. For a fleeting second, Rin assumed— _longed_ —that Haru remembered him. For a fleeting second, hope revived within the traveler's heart.

Then, that instant vanished.

In lieu of a verbal reply, the former Iwatobi ace swimmer displayed rotten teeth with remaining bits of meat. Gone had Haru's erstwhile clear blue eyes, ousted by cloudiness too murky to reflect the pain from his dislocated knee. Fueled by unremitting appetite, the living corpse trudged on and extended his arms to grasp for the fresh prey.

Drop by drop of hot tears slipped uncontrollably down Rin's face. The moment he hadn't been able to get ahold of his lover over the phone, he had prayed that what he had dreaded wouldn't come true. Then he had mentally dictated himself to prepare for the worst upon finding the smashed window, overturned and splintered furniture, and carmine spatters on the floor at Haru's flat the next day. Even so, standing face-to-face with a Haru who was no longer the Haru Rin had known instilled him with a palpable loss of something he cherished being drained from him, as if the joy of living had been syphoned away from his veins and tissues.

Nanase Haruka had been one Rin could never let go while alive, and he would still do so in death.

Still showing no sign of recognition, Haru charged at Rin. Pernicious fingers thrust forward, ready to claw the prey in their unappeasable grip. These were the same fingers that had drawn sketches of him, prepared home-cooked meals for him, and clung at him in bed. The band of platinum encircling the ring finger glinted in the sunlight.

Rin's lips shivered. Another memory flashed in his mind. It had been one of the rarefied moments: their engagement. How could he ever forget how Haru smiled at him that day! Oh, how he denied those little teardrops he swiftly brushed with his hand. And yeah, the whole sight of it—Gou's tears of joy, Rei and Nagisa's cheers, Makoto's lonely gaze, in spite of his blessing, and Sousuke's clenching and unclenching hands…

More tears prickled at Rin's eyes, blurring his vision. As much as he looked forward to celebrating Haru's twenty-second birthday together in another five weeks, he knew that day would no longer come. Resolve flared in his brain: a world without Haru would be an empty shell.

Drawing another makeshift stake from a bundle tied to his back, Rin darted toward Haru's zombie. Every step that was supposed to close the gap between them grew heavier with guilt. Nonetheless, he didn't have much time; a horde of undead thronging from the next block was advancing closer with every second.

Rin halted his steps mere inches from Haru. He stood still, offering himself.

' _You're the one entity I can't live without.'_

A million ax-like pangs shot through Rin's scalp—the multiplex, persisting throes of excruciation that pierced his bones and converge from all sides upon his inmost brain. The dread and anguish tormented him worse than any hells of earthly madness could ever contain. He gripped the sharpened stick so tightly that his knuckles went white. A yelp tore from his throat. The black spots dancing across his vision delayed him in carrying out his mission: holding Haru's shoulder in place, Rin aimed the spear-like object at his lover's head with his other hand.

Haru remained too preoccupied with devouring the tender flesh between Rin's neck and shoulder to ward off the attack. In an instant, the sharpened edge of the homemade spear pierced through his skull, coming out of his forehead and going into Rin's—a single weapon that skewered two heads.

Blood gushed, dyeing the sharpened stick's shaft and splashing onto the identical platinum ring on Rin's finger until its inscription was colored crimson. He had requested the goldsmith: " _Te amo in saecula saeculorum_."

' _I love you for a lifetime of lifetimes.'_ Rin grimaced through the ever-growing agony. _'I'll be together again with you soon, Haru.'_

The pain from the stab, however, didn't stop at Rin's head. Instead, it diffused throughout his being, filling his heart and reverberating through his entire system of arteries. He had just eradicated the person that weighed more than the world to him.

###

Rin opened his eyes to the sight of his familiar bedroom ceiling. Instinctively, his hand skated across the bed sheets, seeking the presence that mattered most. He exhaled in relief the moment his roaming fingers brushed against Haru's ribs. Unblemished by blood, his age-chiseled facial features preserved their serenity.

' _Haru's alive,'_ Rin convinced himself.

No matter how grave the world would turn out to be, that didn't matter as long as Haru was the only thing real. Rin thanked all deities in existence that he had been born and fated to cross paths with Haru. The feelings made his chest tightened and he had to bite his lip to stop those sentiments from gushing out. His gaze dropped to the slumbering figure next to him; Haru's chest heaved up and down in a rhythmic breathing. _'How can I live without you?'_

Fighting the urge to hug the love of his life and stroke the dark locks of silken hair, Rin withdrew his hand, which had already hovered close to Haru's head. His disgruntled mind was no excuse to disturb the sleeper's peace. Stupid zombie movie—he wouldn't have watched it earlier had he known it'd bring him a nightmare!

' _A glass of water should help to calm my nerves.'_

Careful to minimize the rustling of the blanket, Rin loomed over his partner's sleeping figure to reach for the drink on the mahogany nightstand on Haru's side. It was always Haru who provided a pitcher of water and a glass every night, while Rin's side of nightstand usually hosted his computer tablet, book and cellphone.

Sitting up, Rin guzzled it. Then, after his throat was no longer parched and his racing heartbeat had somewhat slowed down, he couldn't help but stare at the glass rim. How big was the chance for his mouth to have touched the same spot as Haru had done earlier?

' _You're acting like the time you had your first crush,'_ Rin's inner voice chided him, _'You're thirty-six now, for goodness' sake!'_

He recalled the time he decided to move to Iwatobi from Sano Elementary School just because he wanted to swim with Haru—his feelings were purely platonic back then. Yet as soon as puberty hit and he couldn't jerk off with an Australian playboy magazine, it became obvious that he had been using the wrong masturbation material: what the pictures of naked girls failed to do to him after more than thirty minutes, the mental image of Haru accomplished it in less than three.

Then, when he came back to Japan during the New Year holiday and challenged Haru, he lost. How could he be someone worthy of his Shining if he remained inferior to that prodigious swimmer? In his outburst, he cried and declared that he'd quit swimming, never guessing that Haru would be the one who retired from competitive swimming during junior high.

The rematch he threw at Haru when they were seventeen marked the start of their time together. A lot had happened since then. With the help his friends from Iwatobi High and Samezuka High, Rin regained the lost meaning of swimming. It baffled him that Haru was late in finding his own dream, but thankfully, their trip to Sydney ended well in more ways than one (while Haru found his dream was truly a joyous tiding, Rin also congratulated himself for managing to restrain his hormone-loaded body from groping Haru's while they shared a bed).

The current Rin eyed the glass a little longer. Even after eleven years of marriage (well, adoption, according to the Japanese legal papers), he had never grown tired of Haru's kisses. They were no more helpful than the sea of brine to a thirsty desert-traveler, so he just _had_ _to_ covet more and more and more.

"If I hadn't known you better, I'd say you're trying to hook up with that glass."

Rin turned sharply at his husband's (hopefully jesting) monotonous comment. A familiar impassiveness painted Haru's why-god-does-he-have-to-be-so-gorgeous visage.

"How long have you been awake?" Rin attempted in vain to convince the two of them that he wasn't abashed. There was very little he could do to keep his composure when Haru's spellbinding blue eyes held him captive like this.

"Long enough to witness you drink and pine for me." At least, the bright side of having a deadpan spouse was that Haru didn't sound smug even when delivering the supposedly conceited response, or even when he continued, "What's with an indirect kiss when you can have a real one right here, right now? How childish!"

Rin pouted. "I'm not too shy to kiss you! I just … didn't want to wake you up."

"Prove it," Haru challenged. As always, his toneless voice had its own effortless way to sound seductive.

At any other time, Rin would jump right out, devouring Haru's lips with all his body and soul could offer, but since the indelible sin of killing the love of his life hounded him at present…

"Not in the mood," Rin answered dejectedly. Out of guilt, he averted Haru's gaze. The lambent moon stared reproachfully at him from the window.

The dip in the mattress preceded Haru's reply, "So, I'll just have to get you in the mood, won't I?"

The next thing Rin knew, his husband was upon him. Their gazes locked. Electric thrills formed in Rin's cheeks and zinged straight down through his entire being. Those damn mesmerizing blue eyes doused him in oblivion while their owner reached up, the pads of his fingers ghosting against Rin's thighs before parting them. Then the distance between the two men diminished. Haru pushed forward, settling his torso between Rin's legs. Induced by its wearer's sensual motion, the friction of Haru's t-shirt caused tingles along Rin's skin.

While Haru's hands slipped beneath the elastic band of Rin's boxers, his head didn't stay idle. Rin's breath hitched as Haru's parted lips glided over his own, his zealous tongue slipping into Rin's reluctant mouth. The moment their mouths connected, heat traveled through Rin's bloodstream like alcohol. Although he should fight it, his body had grown addicted to his seducer's incitation. He sensed the passion in those movements, heard the ragged breath drifting from those soft lips, and inhibition fled from his brain. His eyelids fluttered like a man in a trance, compelled to keep grazing his lips against Haru's.

Rin moaned as he found a passionate, fervid tongue prying his lips open and slithering in past his teeth, deluging his mouth with the ardor that betrayed Haru's usual poker face. They breathed deeply into each other's mouths and, unable to deny his partner this one kiss, Rin's tongue gradually moved against Haru's, tasting its slickness as it tangled with his own. Rin clutched Haru's back and pressed his partner against him, delving deeper into the kiss with ravenous intent.

Conscience bade Rin to break free despite Haru's slender fingers keeping his body in place. "Haru, I sa—"

Rin's brain froze the moment Haru's gaze found his again. His husband was too close, too fucking close, and the tepid puffs of air between their lips made his heart thump so loudly.

Rin clenched his fist. "Anyway, I don't want to be kissy-kissy with you when the last thing I did was stab your brain right after you literally ate me."

Haru didn't say anything, but years of cohabitation told Rin that the look in Haru's eyes could more or less translate as, _'What did I tell you about that zombie movie?'_

"A-ah, I know you warned me not to watch the zombie movie, but three of my favorite actors are in it. I had to watch it. I had to," Rin blabbered on, "Okay, okay, I know I reap what I sowed. Just gimme a break tonight, will you?"

A pang of guilt and relief fused inside Rin as he watched Haru pull back. He added, "Hey, I just don't want to hurt you, 'kay? Right now I can't focus on anything else."

When Rin received no reply from Haru, he reopened his mouth, about to spout more reasons, but a tug on his lower body made his mouth articulate a totally different sentence, "What the hell are you doing?"

Haru didn't answer before he finished wrapping Rin's wrists in his boxers and briefs, which he had removed in one go. Bringing the makeshift cuff over Rin's head and hooking a portion of it on the headboard ornament, he said, "You're tied up. You aren't going to harm me."

They both knew that it'd take less than three seconds to wiggle out of that restraint, since Haru didn't tie the fabric into any sort of knot, but Rin decided to play along. More often than not, it was Rin who initiated sex, so when Haru did, could Rin be blamed for the anticipation coiling in his stomach?

Shifting closer, Haru placed his body between the legs of Rin's seated figure. But when his mouth slanted over Rin's again, the redhead whined, "Haru, as I thought, seeing your mouth reminds me of how your zombie figure gnawed on me."

"So, it's fine as long as you don't see, then?" Haru asked, his gaze darting from Rin's face to his tank top.

"Whoa, wait, you can't be thinking…"

Haru lifted the tank top until it covered the upper half of Rin's nose all the way up to the top of Rin's head.

"I can't believe you're—"Rin gasped as Haru sucked on his bottom lip "—kissing me like this!"

Huffing indignantly, Rin nudged Haru with his knee. "You're supposed to make me a cup of hot chocolate with reduced sugar and pat me on the head!"

"That sounds like what Makoto would do."

"So, you're suggesting that we'll just screw to blow off that nightmare from my mind? Is that it?"

"I don't see your dick complaining, Rin."

Rin didn't need to look down to verify Haru's claim; he had felt himself hardening, even as he willed his body to go numb. "Arrgh! Fine! Just get over with it!"

For all his previous protests, Rin moaned when Haru's tongue started to caress against his. Their shallow breathing became one as he nuzzled his husband's mouth with his own. He tilted his head for a better angle and an easier access for Haru to invade his mouth. He arched into his partner, grinding their torsos together as to deepen the kiss. Dizziness swamped him. There was no up or down, just Haru—Haru's lips, taste, heat—and Rin let himself drown in Haru's touch.

As the intensity of the moment built, so did the passion in their kisses. Rin kissed Haru hard, and his husband kissed him even harder. They kept possessing and repossessing each other's mouths until Rin remembered nothing but the shape of Haru's name on his tongue. Haru put Rin's thighs atop his own, making him partially sit on his lap, just so that the redhead could meet the sensuous sway of his hips. The fact that his eyes were covered by his tank top's fabric reduced his world to the music of Haru's breathing and the drag of Haru's lips along his jawline.

The nipple play that followed put an end to Rin's _arrière pensée_. He let out an odd sound—a mishmash between a frustrated growl and an embarrassed moan, "Haruuu~" when his husband's lips clamped onto his fully erect left pectoral nub.

"Was it too forceful?" Haru detached himself from Rin. He didn't bite him, but it wouldn't be the first time for Rin to turn into a whiny mess for no reason at all.

"I still feel your clothes against my skin. Take 'em off."

Even as Rin heard the rustling of Haru's clothes, his insistently throbbing member urged him to demand, "Hurry."

Rin didn't quite catch the sound of Haru's clothes being tossed across their bed, for Haru's action demanded his urgent attention: he felt his legs lifted under each of his partner's arms before cushioning his thighs with his shoulders. Heat crept over Rin's cheeks. He remembered doing the same thing to Haru from time to time, and the full view of Haru's wide-spread groin had been spectacular. It had taken all his self-control not to lick up every glistening drop of the intimate substance that coated Haru's erection—not too soon anyway. But then, Haru was never the shy one in bed. While in such a predicament, he'd spread his legs invitingly, tempting Rin, beckoning him to do all sorts of indecorous acts of wantonness.

And now Haru kissed Rin's sac with the barest hint of suction before tasting it leisurely. He placed his tongue flat against the tip of Rin's perked-up flesh, making the redhead arch into the air and let out a drawled version of Haru's name. His lips made a lewd slosh as they moved over Rin's hardened member.

Rin curled his toes when Haru cupped his balls and swallowed, throat working slick and ardent around his length. Haru's tongue swirled around the most sensitive parts of Rin's privates, causing him to groan more pronouncedly with each attentive lick. As Haru had his way with him, Rin's insides grew so hot his bones felt like they were melting and pooling in his groin, leaving him weak and aching. Then, without warning, Haru flicked his tongue around Rin's crown.

An involuntary mewl escaped Rin's throat.

"Rin," Haru called in a way that made Rin feel so wanted, so needed, so treasured. How did this seem fair? One word was all Haru needed to spout to steep Rin in roiling desire.

That damn alluring husband of his didn't stop there. Rin felt the trail of Haru's breath across the sensitive skin at the juncture of his thighs, followed by a long, wet lick across his rear. Rin quivered as Haru ran his tongue over his opening. The tongue stiffened and breached past the ring of muscle. Rin's hips rocked uncontrollably; no matter how many times Haru had done this to him, it always felt maddeningly good.

Rin might or might not have been out for the next few minutes. In the haze of his lust, he was barely aware of Haru's fingers stretching him one at a time at first, and then with additional digits. And when Haru twisted them, well … Rin probably screamed to the high heaven. However, given that something thick and pulsating speared inside to replace those fingers, Haru must not want to let Rin come alone.

As Haru continued plunging into Rin, Rin felt his insides spread along his partner's hardened flesh. The redhead arched his body, relishing the delicious collision of their thighs each time his husband lunged forward. He writhed even more, and instinct led him to join his rhythm with precision as he met each of his partner's thrusts. Just as each time he took Haru, it felt nothing less than glorious, the feeling of Haru inside him was equally addictive.

Amid the sloshy sound of lubricant, the slapping of the two bodies, the ragged breathing of his partner, and the thumping of his own heart, Rin bucked his hips, desperate for more skin contact with Haru.

Not enough.

He could never get enough.

More.

Still, Haru wouldn't tease him forever. Rin knew that Haru relished watching how Rin's needy demands splintered into gasps, sundered by each of his thrusts. While pride forbade him to do the things that would only serve to boost Haru's ego, carnal desire said otherwise. Controlling his moans—even when he bit his lips or covered his mouth—couldn't last for long. Soon, his body, trained well to meld to Haru's shape, would dismiss every bit of dignity remaining within Rin.

On a particularly well-timed lunge of Haru's hips, Rin shuddered. His inner walls squeezed Haru's girth hard and another high-pitched sound fell out of his mouth. Rin crossed his legs around Haru's back, urging him to hit that same spot again, but Haru deliberately avoided it so that they both could last a little longer. Instead, he rocked with measured gentleness, caressing Rin's insides with addictive strokes. He drove in and out of him, letting it journey deeper with every slow movement.

"Faster!" Rin whined and, as always, Haru knew how to calm him down. His deft fingers skated across the expanse of Rin's torso. It wasn't an erotic fondle of any sort; in fact, his exploration was soothing yet reverent, just as Haru would touch the most sacred of all waters. When Rin made more noises, half-groan, half-plea, Haru understood his unintelligible syllables. He dragged Rin into messy kiss after messy kiss.

Rin tightened his legs across Haru's lower back to lock their position. He stopped his partner from pulling out altogether and rutted himself down onto Haru's throbbing heat inside him, squeezing and relaxing in a decadent tandem to his runaway heartbeat.

Whenever Rin was connected to Haru like this, there was a feeling like he was finally whole. He encountered a part of him that he'd never known he'd been missing before he first met Haru at their very first swimming race at elementary school.

' _Haru … my Haru…'_

Rin reveled in the heat between his legs and the fever in his heart. The muscles within his body contracted as he approached his peak, the intense pleasure coursing through his veins like electric current, making him worship his better half even more, crying out for him at every mind-boggling thrust.

A twitch in his balls was all the warning Rin received before he trembled with pleasure, climax ripping through his spine, the desperate clench of every muscle in his lower body not enough to stop himself from throbbing with each spurt. His moan escalated into a loud, long groan as he tipped his head back and his hips forward. He shivered as his orgasm rolled over him in steady waves, emptying himself against the chiseled structure of Haru's abs.

Haru's seed filled him only seconds later. Damn Haru and his impeccable timing! His hips jerked and the part of him that was inside Rin pulsated. With one final jostle, he released his orgasm, bursting inside Rin.

Rin's mind was rocketing with so many feelings that to identify them would be like trying to count all the grains of sand on a beach. Nevertheless, his mouth managed only a shaky, "Haru," before his climax knocked every last ounce of breath from his lungs.

Haru uncovered Rin's eyes for him. The moment the garment left his face, Rin's vision was restored to Haru. His world consisted of Haru and only of Haru—Haru and his face, his body, his voice, his love.

Without warning, Haru pulled Rin in a tight embrace, protective like a child shielding his favorite toy when another tried to pry it away. A part of Rin wanted to ask why, but then again during the years he had spent by Haru's side, he had discerned more from observing his spouse's behavior than expecting verbal cues.

Rin freed his own hands from the restraint of his boxers and briefs, and then hugged Haru back. He let his husband nuzzle the slope of his shoulder, breathing in his scent. Although post-coital cuddles were not at all unusual between them, he could sense there was a deeper meaning in it tonight.

Rin's hunch proved to be right the very next minute, when Haru's tremulous fingers cupped the sides of Rin's face as he intoned with a smoldering gaze, "Don't ever die before I do."

Each of Haru's syllables cried out sincerity so intense that it was almost tangible. Blinking back his tears of joy, Rin bantered,"I could say the same to you." _'My heart beats for you.'_

No mortal could defy the will of heaven, but while their time together lasted, they would cherish it throughout their lives. The two men's lips found each other's in voracious kisses.

"We should clean up," Haru remarked after their kiss ended. He rolled to the side, but made no attempt to vacate the bed. There were times when Haru came up with a basin of warm water and towels when Rin's legs had jellified like this, but tonight seemed not to be one of those times.

"Yeah, we should." Even as Rin's mouth parroted Haru's, his body slid closer to his husband's to straddle his leg over the raven-haired man's body. Apparently, his kink of smearing his partner with semen worked well with Haru's fondness for liquid, even though said liquid would dry up and feel sticky on his body later. Or perhaps Haru simply tolerated Rin out of affinity. Rin never asked.

They looked at each other in affectionate silence. The smell of sex hung so heavily in the air that it must permeate through their skin. Yet Rin was content listening to the decelerating beats of Haru's heart, while his husband lovingly stroked his wine-colored hair. Haru's liquid lust from earlier kept dripping down Rin's thighs and onto the bed sheets, but in this blissful cuddle, they couldn't bring themselves to care.

Then the eon of comfortable quietness was broken.

"Hey, Haru."

"Hmm?"

Rin shifted his body so that he lay fully atop of Haru, wiggling his butt right above Haru's flaccid sex and took delight in its twitches. "Again?"

###

The next morning, Haru opened his eyes to the touch of the iridium wedding ring encircling Rin's finger, along with the rest of Rin's hand, against his cheek.

"It's 11:41; aren't we going to have some brunch?" To Haru's ears, Rin's voice sounded no less melodious than a water current flowing through a rocky stream.

Through heavy lidded eyes, Haru gazed at his better half, who sat on the edge of the bed. To other eyes, the sight before him might just be a man in his thirties wearing a white shirt, but to him, it was a _sublime_ man in his thirties wearing a white shirt that he had bought as a White Day present two years prior. Moreover, not only did refreshing scent of shampoo and shower gel waft from Rin's figure, but the sunrays sifting through the window blinds also lit Rin's skin aglow.

How could Haru not find himself falling in love all over again?

"Rinrin, kiss…" Haru slurred, eyes closing again and voice thick with sleep, even though his fingers fiddled flirtatiously with the top button of Rin's shirt.

Silence stretched between them, and Haru knew that Rin must be agonizing whether or not to comply with his whim. His best course of action was to stay still—he was no longer a young man himself, but Rin had always considered his sleeping form to be adorable and kept staring at him for protracted minutes when he had assumed Haru to be still sleeping (not that Haru would admit that he had known this all along).

A part of Haru _did_ feel guilty for tempting his better half with procrastination when they were supposed to have started their day. Yet this was Rin, and Haru had no love interest in life other than this impertinent, ambitious, and sentimental swimmer who had ensnared his heart since their childhood days. Hence, his incurable craving for more of Rin should be justified, right?

Seconds later, Haru heard Rin's grumble, "Serves me right for spoiling you." Nevertheless, he felt the touch of Rin's fingers on his chin, followed by the pressure of Rin's lips against his own.

And there it was. The tongue. The sinful little thing that ravenously trailed along Haru's bare skin and incessantly chanted Haru's name with each of his thrusts last night.

"Mmm…" Haru hummed into his spouse's neck. He was not generally a vocal one, but he was fully aware that doing it sparsely would give reason for Rin to treasure everything his mouth spouted.

When Haru's legs snaked their way around Rin's hips, the sleepy man heard a hesitant reproach, "Haru, there's no time."

It would have been more convincing had Rin not vocalized the words with glassy eyes, flushed cheeks, and fervid breath. (Honestly, judging from how constricted Rin's voice sounded, anyone could point out that he had already been halfway melting because of Haru's little moan.) So, all Haru had to do now as a closing act was to shut Rin up with a prolonged version of their heated lip-locking.

It ended too soon all the same; a kiss shared with Rin was never enough. But as soon as Rin pulled away, Haru slid his lips down the column of Rin's neck and sucked.

As Haru breathed in Rin's scent, he sensed a pulse jumping wildly before his spouse's rebuking tone chided, "We're going to be late for the meeting with our editor."

In truth, Haru yearned nothing less than Rin fucking him right there … or perhaps shower sex could be an option, too. Alas, the aforementioned meeting really would be important. It had taken them seven months of working on the book—the first published material created during their post-retirement as professional athletes who had presented Japan with various medals across the span of fifteen years. Rin had written all the swim theories, while Haru handled the illustrations, along with the foreword about how the water was alive and would bare its fangs—which Rin _heavily_ edited. Still…

"One more minute?" Haru haggled.

The reply "No" came five seconds too late and Rin's hands did not swat Haru's when they fumbled to reach for Rin's back. As soon as Rin sighed in defeat and announced, "You've got half a minute," Haru's shameless ankles latched themselves over his husband's lower back, while his fingers promenaded along Rin's upper back in lazy circles.

Needless to say, when they sauntered to the kitchen half an _hour_ later, Rin's shirt was rumpled, Haru's head looked messier than his already tousled bed hair, and their lips were swollen.

' _Mine,'_ Haru thought as he nuzzled Rin's neck. His hand took his husband's in his own, allowing their wedding rings to gleam under the soft glow of the kitchen lamps.

" _Te amo in saecula saeculorum."_

OWARI

* * *

Sorry if the sappiness rots your teeth, orz; it'd break my heart if I were to write sad ending. As for how Haru and Rin's betrothal came to be, you can read it in my other fic, _A Mizuchi's Royal Consort_.


End file.
